Lengthy work on windmill will allow it to stand the test of time

Thursday

Apr 17, 2014 at 7:00 AMApr 17, 2014 at 9:30 AM

By Annette.Manwell@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4270

Windmill DeZwaan looks obviously different from the outside since it was repaired and refurbished last fall.And while the new copper on the top of the cap and the new shaker shingles on the upper portion were necessary to the overall work, they are a small portion of what was done to the 252-year-old structure.In April 2012, as the observation deck was being replaced prior to the start of the tourist season, a crack and rot were discovered in a large, pivotal beam within the cap of the windmill. The cap, which turns the blades into the wind so the mill can operate, is on top of the windmill, and is not attached to the rest of the structure. It sits on rollers and is held down only by the gravity of the 20,000 pounds resting there.Once the discovery of damage was made, the cap and blades were stabilized with heavy chains and wood. DeZwaan was immobile for two years. Grain was ground after the donation of a portable mill was given to the park.That will all change Saturday. As long as there is wind, DeZwaan will turn. The work was completed at a cost of of roughly $750,000, and is the result of hundreds of thousands in donations from local residents, businesses, organizations and some state grants.Once the windmill was stabilized, committees were formed to start fundraising, write grants and decide what the parks future should be. The result of those committees was much more than repairing the only historically authentic Dutch windmill in the U.S. — it amounted to a plan to build pedestrian walkways along the access road, a bridge to Holland Township, plans to repair the authentic Dutch street organ and carousel and approval of turning over management of the park to a nonprofit organization.

A lot of workThe large wood beam — roughly one and a half square feet and more than 20 feet long — that started the process has been replaced and is now steel. With that, the mechanics of the windmill — a machine, not a building — can function again.But so much more than that was done, agreed City of Holland Interim Parks Department Director Andy Kenyon and Windmill Island Gardens Manager Ad Van den Akker. Much of the work was safety improvements, such as fixing or replacing hatch covers and adding metal braces to other beams in the windmill for extra support and protective, explosion-proof covers on lights so the flour dust, which is rather flammable, can't ignite from heat they put off.There's a lot of copper at the windmill now. Copper plating was installed around all the windows to keep rain out. Copper wiring runs around the deck and throughout the windmill to ground the electricity in the event of a lightning strike.Safety hatches have been replaced or restored with added measures for further safety. The thick rope that pulls the brake to stop the blades from spinning has been replaced.Within the cap, it's a mix of old and new. The large blade brake is still original. The steel beam and a lot of copper wiring are new. The cap itself, the actual wood structure that fits over all the mechanisms, was rebuilt. The copper shingles on top of the cap are new and are slowly starting to show the patina and will soon go from the brownish copper color to the green that was familiar from the old cap.So many details were addressed while the historic structure was given an overhaul.The work didn't end up using extra money; it stayed on budget with very few surprises as the work began, Kenyon and Van den Akker agreed.“We were expecting worse, because it always is,” Van den Akker said. “But it was surprisingly good.”— Follow this reporter on Facebook or Twitter, @SentinelNetty.